I'm crabby about cancer! My blog is the story of my participation in events for Team in Training to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
As a Hodgkin's lymphoma survivor from 2002, I want to give something back to show the gratitude that I have for surviving this disease. I completed my sixth Team in Training event in October 2013, and in September 2011, I walked 60 miles to raise money for breast cancer research! I'm living strong!

Monday, August 31, 2009

Monday Musings

It was tough to go back to work today after spending Saturday afternoon at the beach, and taking a dip in the warm Atlantic, and then having a great hike yesterday in the mountains – and taking a chilly dip in a mountain stream.

I was pleased with the hike yesterday. I do this hike every summer – it was my August challenge this year, to celebrate being strong and healthy one more August after being so ill in August of 2002. But usually when I do this hike, I really struggle on the steep climb up Wildcat Ridge at the end. For example, in 2003, just seven months after finishing chemo, it about killed me. It seemed like I had to stop and sit down every 10 minutes for about five minutes. Young men passed me. Young women passed me. Heck, if there had been 90 year olds using walkers on that trail, they would have passed me. Once, as I trudged along, a snail raced by with a turtle hot in pursuit of him, intending to make him his lunch. But when the turtle saw me, he stopped and laughed his butt off and the snail escaped.

But not yesterday. I made two brief stops on the way up to drink water and sit down for about two minutes. It was still tiring, but didn’t carry the sense of being totally worn out and continually needing to rest. My uphill pace was about 35-40 minutes a mile, a far cry from my normal 13.5 – 14 minutes per mile walking pace on roads. But I wasn’t on any road. Checking my pulse a few times on this section, it was about 140-150 as compared to my resting pulse of 56 – 64. So it was a great aerobic workout, and my legs are a little sore today, but not excessively so. I did some light walking at lunch, and some water aerobics tonight, and those felt good.

I guess despite carrying about 5 pounds more on my frame than when I did the race in April, and not exercising anywhere near to the degree that I had been, I am still in decent enough shape to do this hike without feeling like I am going to drop. And that feels good!

I almost didn’t take a dip in that cold stream yesterday. It was pleasantly warm but not hot in the mountains, and I didn’t really feel like I needed to cool off. But then I thought – “I won’t be back in here until next summer. And who knows? Take this opportunity while I have it. Carpe diem!” I am glad I did. While I was there, at least 12 hikers came by but not one of them took the plunge!

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Racing for a Cure and Living Strong!

About this blog

Every post prior to July 24, 2008 was written previously and posted in this blog as time allowed, starting in June. These posts describe my preparation for and participation in Team in Training for the 2008 Arizona Marathon. In addition, I've written about the May 2008 Susan G. Komen for the Cure in Richmond, Virginia. Posts from July 24 forward were written in the present, as I race to be a small part of finding a cure for the evil beast known as cancer!

Who Should our Role Models Be?

I believe that every day people doing every day things who are trying to do good in the world should be our true role models, not "sports heroes", actors and actresses, pop stars, politicians, super models, and other celebrities. Let them all do what they do best - which is athletics, acting, music, getting elected, modeling, and acting like celebrities. But unless they are a true role model, let's not pretend that they are simply because they can dunk a basketball or look great in a swim suit or win an Oscar. You and I are role models when we do something good in the world.